Jiyong’s Mother fretted over her son-in-law with every aspect possible from the bowtie to the hairstyle. Jiyong had worked some magic on himself and his Husband, but it was still not enough for the Mother. She stood next to the younger and indicated with her left arm what he had to do.

“Like this.” She instructed as she linked her arm with Jiyong’s, she bent her son's elbow at the perfect angle and slid her arm again through the gap. Seungri understood and did what he was told without a word.

“Absolutely stunning!” She proclaimed proudly. “--And Seungri my dear, it’s only for a few hours! Try to perfect your fake smile, just look at Jiyong. He does it with ease.”

And then the woman was out of sight. Poof. Gone with the wind leaving the newly-married couple in the small hotel room.

The reception was held on whoever knows what floor but Seungri had concluded that only the richest and the elite were invited, that is if his Mother-in-law’s outfit was anything to go by.

Jiyong sighed. “She’s a handful.”

Seungri kept quiet and just gave a half smile. “You’re nervous,” Jiyong stated.

Nervous was an understatement. He was absolutely freaking out. First impressions mattered, but he was too tired to keep a smile plastered to his face. Not to mention that he was homesick and wanted to cry because this was all too much and all he wanted was his bed. Jiyong’s Mother lightly slapped her son when she saw the white plaster on Seungri’s head before she started fretting over him out of worry. It was meant to calm his nerves, but it made him miss his own Mother even more.

Seungri hadn’t even noticed when he started sporting his pout and tear-filled eyes, but it definitely had been a minute or two. And he wasn’t one to cry in front of people he did not know that well but Jiyong was his Husband, it only made sense to do so.

“Hey,” Jiyong whispered to ease his worries. He had caught onto what Seungri was probably feeling, and he understood. It was what he felt when he had first been given the position he now had, and these gatherings were his least favourite things.

Jiyong took Seungri’s left hand into his own and rubbed his thumb over it carefully. It’s not like the boy was a broken ornament that needed to be handled with care but he was starting to worry Jiyong now.

“It’s only a matter of a few hours. I promise we can leave early if you’re not up for it.” He reasoned. He did not want to stay the entire night. His bed was calling his name. But his Mother had already booked the room for that exact reason.

Seungri looked up and found Jiyong’s expression to be worried yet sincere. His eyes then darted to the other side of the room a bit embarrassed at his stressful tears. The boy poor had everything is thrown at him in a matter of 24 hours, of course, it would become a bit too much to handle.

“Just stick with me. I’ll do the talking you just need to do the smiling.”

“Hyung, you shouldn’t have to do everything by yourself.”

Jiyong shook his head. “Please, everyone out there is a bunch of snobs. Just leave it all to me.”

“We barely know each other, and you’re already taking everything onto your plate.”

Jiyong snickered. “Marriage is teamwork. If you don’t feel up for it then that’s okay, we can work through it together. Remember, just keep smiling.” He fixed his own tie mindful of the slaughter from the gossiping Aunties who would critique his every move.

“Hyung, thank you.” Seungri meant it. He looped his arm with Jiyong’s once again.

“No, thank you. I can call them out on their bull this time around.” And that was something that Jiyong had been looking forward to for so long. Maybe not for himself, but any wrong word thrown at Seungri would face his unleashed anger. Perhaps this party wasn’t a bad idea after all.

Jiyong shut the room door behind them before leading them towards the staircase at the end of the hallway.

“I’m telling you there’s this one Aunty who never shuts up. Sometimes I just want to scream at her because I have no idea where she gets half of the stuff that she says.”

“Why don’t you?”

“Because Mom is always on about reputation and what not. She said I can always defend my partner which is weird cause Dad never once defended her.”

Jiyong didn’t say a word after that as he had instead shut himself off. The family had not once uttered a word about Mr Kwon since he had arrived, not even Youngbae. Maybe it was something that he would know about later as Jiyong immediately dropped the topic.

“Remember just smile.” He reminded as he led them down the steps towards the onlooking public.

Seungri only gripped onto Jiyong tighter. He made sure to blame it on the fact that he did not want to be here, even though that truly was the main reason. People had a thing for staring at others he had noticed in his lifetime, but it had never felt this suffocating.

“Look up.” Jiyong gritted his teeth a bit too close to his ear. He disguised it with a smile.

Maybe that was why he found his own shoes to be more interesting as he took note of the hushed whispers around the room. They were calling him shy, but he heard small murmurs of being disrespectful. And then that was that the murmurs grew into loud chatter and laughter and Seungri found that everyone had gone back to enjoying the party. Wine glasses were clinking and hands shaking. All they had wanted was a simple glance.

Youngbae nudged the two apart as he placed his arms on the either of them and walked them towards the table reserved for the couple. It had been laid out neatly, and the wine sat inside some ice, and the meat was expensive, to say the least.

“Now if you excuse me I’ve got a date waiting for me.” Youngbae raised an eyebrow with a smirk.

Jiyong did the same back mirroring his best friend. “You finally asked her out?” he had grabbed Youngbae by the wrist.

“Turns out she likes me as well, now if you excuse me!”

Youngbae dashed off stealing the wine from the table. He knew that Jiyong didn’t like the brand and from his own judgement it seemed that Seungri had no taste for it either.

“He can get overly excited at times, but I’m sure you’ll get used to that.”

That was the least of Seungri’s worries. The murmurs and eyes followed their every move now as if the two were put on display for the world to see. He glanced at Jiyong for some reassurance and saw that the man had busied himself with his food.

“Ignore them.” He urged. He himself didn’t like that their every move was being watched, but it made more sense for at least one of them to be calm.

But ignoring them was not so easy as Seungri felt a hand on his shoulder and one that was not familiar, and judging from Jiyong’s annoyed expression it was not a good sign either. The pair of hands placed themselves on either side of Seungri’s cheeks giving them a hard squeeze. Seungri had nowhere to look other than the brown orbs staring right back at him.

“What a cutie! You’ve done well for yourself Jiyong.”

The words dripping with sarcasm and Seungri could feel it through his soul. There was something off about her, and he didn’t like it one bit. She just looked so familiar to him.

But, before Jiyong could shoo the hands away, another pair reached from behind the woman and took them off.

“Mom, you can’t scare him like that.” A deep voice ordered.

Jiyong stood up. “Aunty, Seunghyun is right.”

“That’s Hyung for you!” he playfully slapped Jiyong upside